An Outline for Writing Sentence-Combining Problems

Abstract

ably all language activities foster syntactic dexterity, and there is no reason why the teacher must consider it a separate, isolated problem. However, beginning in Grade 4 there may be a distinct developmental gain in control of written syntax for most children if they are asked to direct their attention to syntax. Grade 4 is about the time when complexity of written syntax catches and surpasses complexity of spoken syntax (O'Donnell, p. 95). As teachers know, students seem to make a breakthrough here in willingness to write and in sheer quantity of writing. It seems an appropriate time to provide them direct help with sentences. Boys particularly appear to need this help, since they temporarily fall behind the girls in writ'Kellogg W. Hunt, Grammatical Structures Written at Three Grade Levels, 1965; Walter Loban, The Language of Elementary School Children, 1963; and Roy C. O'Donnell et al, Syntax of Kindergarten and Elementary School Children, 1967. All published at Urbana, Illinois, as research reports of the National Council of Teachers of English. 2See the very thorough and readable review of research on grammar and writing in John C. Mellon, Transformational Sentence-Combining (Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, 1969).